A blog for fans of all fandoms.

Anna von Veh recently commented on fanfiction and all its little parts that make it good for business. When I read her post I felt it was so well written that I wanted to expand upon it by sharing varying analysis on fanfiction, viewpoints in support of her opinions discussed in the post and those opposing. Fanfiction’s acceptance is growing and will only serve to help those in business, academics, and personally.

The time has come again for our beloved shows to be told their fate. Fandoms have waited with bated breath to find out if the feels will continue, or if the axe is coming down to kill their happiness. Thankfully shows such as Supernatural, Teen Wolf, Vampire Diaries, Arrow, The Originals and more are continuing on. The Collective Diva wrote about her satisfaction with the renewal of Supernatural and Arrow. In addition to the cast’s excitement that she writes about, there has also been plenty of fan celebration as well. My Tiny obsessions shared her joy about the news. The Collective Diva also comments on the upcoming spin-off that has been picked up, Supernatural: Bloodlines. Supernatural: Bloodlines will be based in Chicago and be primarily focused on supernatural families of werewolves and shapeshifters along with the hunter that’s out to get them. It is one of many pilots that are expected to do well this year. Other pilots to be on the look out for are Fox Network’s Gotham, The CW’s Arrow spin-off The Flash, and NBC’s Constantine. There is also an overhaul of superhero shows on their way and Unreality Magazine shares what they know about them. Gotham is going to be done similarly to Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., a centering on back story and characters other than the main superhero, but with the exception of DC universe continuity throughout the films and show, while Marvel’s new shows with Netflix will stay in its preexisting universe.

It’s not all super-things that have been renewed or are coming soon though, The Big Bang Theory was recently renewed for 3 more seasons as was 18 other CBS shows. Fox’s Glee will go on to have its sixth and final season and looks to be continued primarily in New York with focus on the main characters of Kurt, Rachel, Blaine, and Sam, a decision that has received mixed reactions and spurred plenty of Fan Fiction. Syfy has in the works a new show, Ascension, that has all the bits necessary to make it an old school Syfy show. Syfy’s Being Human was cancelled and Helix will stay in limbo since it recently premiered. Staying with Syfy though it Continuum, and Warehouse 13’s final season.

With all the new and returning shows this summer and fall the fandoms will have plenty of reasons to stay busy talking, blogging, writing, and drawing.

It has been a while since I shared some fan art that caught my attention. About a month ago The Fandom News shared an image of the day depicting the main character of Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Karou, and her mentor, Brimstone. The artwork was done by Calivel on DeviantArt. The series, written by Laini Taylor, has received lots of praise for the first book and its sequel Days of Blood and Starlight. The final book in the series, Dreams of Gods and Monsters is highly anticipated and will be released on April 8, 2014. The story is like nothing else out there today and if you haven’t read it but have a fancy for the supernatural then you should definitely look into it.

If any of you have any book or art recommendations then let me know in the comments below!

There has been a lot of heroes in the media lately from movies and television shows that are more flawed than those typically seen. Miriam Joy speaks on the heroes that have lots of negative attributes or issues and their accompanying villains that the fans love, sympathize with, and somehow become obsessed with. While the post is quite old, I though it was relevant considering trending shows and movies have these type of characters featured. Marvel is releasing and has recently release quite a few new movies that feature deeply flawed heroes. Mainly Iron Man 3 that featured Tony Stark with a post traumatic stress disorder following the events of The Avengers. Thor without any issues at all personally in the second movie, and yet Loki has all the issues mentioned in Joy’s post as well as feeling unloved by his mother and being so emotionally distraught and contained in a cell until he is taken out when needed by Thor. Vulture compiles all the love that Loki has seemed to get from critics. In the latest Star Trek movie the villain Kahn drew plenty of sympathy while Captain Kirk made a multitude of mistakes. Kahn was aggressive, dangerous, and yet his people were in danger. He killed a man, but he was made for killing the first place.

Television’s heroes have new things to deal with and yet they also have some loved and much wanted villains. Teen Wolf’s new villain is Stiles, who was previously the sidekick, although villain may be to strong of a term. Stiles would most likely be considered the big bad of this season 3b since he’s being possessed by the actual villain, the Nogitsune. The fans love him though, if the livetweeting and liveblogging that goes on when dark!Stiles appears is anything to go by. The general consensus is that he is hot and the fans want more and less all at once. On Supernatural the overall villain has always been Crowley, and even though he’s the king of hell the fans still love him. He has qualities that make him a quality character, his sarcasm, resourcefulness, and his new found antithesis, Abbadon who is much worse than him. The heroes of Supernatural are Sam and Dean, even though as they’ve stated, they aren’t heroes. Sam has especially been riling up fans with his latest opinions and actions. Mainly how he has been in regards to Dean, but he’s still doing the job with his brother. Hunting things, saving people, the family business. The most well known villain of the show Sherlock is Moriarty. He’s sadistic, snarky, murderous, and somehow quite lovable. He makes the viewer feel sad for him even while he’s telling Sherlock to fall off a roof. At the end of the latest season of Sherlock Moriarty appeared on the screen with the line “Did you miss me?,” that was answered with a resounding “YES!”

Eleanor Musgrove wrote on her blog, Fandom Wanderers, “How To Take A Break From Fandom(s)” where she discussed how to step away when it gets to be too much. I think it is a great idea to take a break every once in a while. Brief rest periods can be good for preventing a fan from being overwhelmed. It also helps to sometimes focus all your attention on the real world around you. Immersion into fiction is meant to be a temporary reprieve.

The recommendations mentioned in her post are great guidelines when it comes to taking a break. There are instances, though, when a break is not enough. Fandom can be too much for some people, and they feel the need to leave altogether. Charlotte Kinzie felt the need to leave the Supernatural fandom. Kinzie describes the negative side of fandom while continuing to maintain the fact that she was content with having been apart of it. She states that “the good did seem to outweigh the bad most of the time.” Overexposure to the full range of a fandom for too long can lead to the feeling of needing to leave. That is why breaks are necessary if a fan wants to continue to be apart of a fandom without it getting to be too much for them. While on break, though, it does need to be a complete distancing from the entire online environment and all the material that comes with it as Musgrove mentions.

The need to take a break can come from a variety of issues. Something as easy to correct as schoolwork, or something more complicated like a disagreement with the things happening in a show. If it is something simple like putting in more time doing work, the break can happen and then the fan immerse their self slowly back into the fandom. If it is more complicated and the fan wants things to change that they themselves cannot, then a break can only do so much. That is not to say that a show should be given up on, Fandom for Equality discussed why fans should stay and how to do so. They tackle some of the minor flaws within a show that can usually be overlooked if everything else on the show is well done. Oftentimes there will be an event, character, or story line that a fan has a qualm with will be resolved or fade away, and the fan can continue as they were now that their issue is out of the way. The fan can take a break, let the story line they disagree with play out, and then come back. Musgrove says “missing a few episodes will not be the end of the world.”

In the end, it all comes down to how the fan is feeling and what they think is in their best interests.

Every fandom has those fans that feel so strongly about something that has happened on a show, in a book, or movie that they want to tell everyone about how upset they are. They put forth effort to try to get others to be unhappy alongside them. The Teen Wolf fandom is no exception. Recently Tyler Posey received a huge amount of backlash for expressing his views towards the ship Sterek. Lady Geek Girl goes into more detail about the severity of things expressed (trigger subjects mentioned) and has posted video of the interview that started it all. As a turnaround though, fans started the trend #Poseytivity on Twitter tonight to lighten the atmosphere.

Tonight’s episode of Teen Wolf caused an uproar as well. Writer Jeff Davis decided to include a personal scene with a very popular character Stiles and a previously featured character Malia. In addition to sending hate to Davis, some viewers have also decided to direct their negative opinions of the character Malia towards the actress who plays her, Shelley Hennig. Instead of letting the naysayers win, a great amount of the fandom have been counteracting their actions by sharing sweet, positive views on Hennig’s acting and character on Tumblr and Twitter.

Just for clarification, all Twitter and Tumblr links are tags and the results seen will vary based on time accessed. Feel free to go deep within and see the changes in opinions as time elapses.

Even with The Fault In Our Stars movie premiere being a bit far away, the fandom itself has been busying themselves with fanfiction, art, and expanding their fandom’s reach. Since the unveiling of the trailer for the movie there has been an increase in art depicting the main characters. There is a clear picture now of what they look like and the fandom has taken that and expanded upon it exponentially . The Fandom News has joined in the melee by choosing to share TFIOS artwork for their ‘artwork of the day’ for February 17th.